Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Guess I'm probably only able to record my runs on a weekly basis, takes too much time to blog daily. We just had another long weekend, straight after National Day. It was Hari Raya Puasa on Sunday, which meant a public holiday on Monday. Did a couple of short morning runs, but saved my legs for the long weekend.

Ran my BT-MR route on Saturday, the weather was rather forgiving. It started off very hot but cooled off towards the late morning. 2:45h, normal.

Met up with friends for a long run on Sunday. They started from MR and I met them along Rifle Range Road. I brought my hydration bag that day (I normally hold a water bottle), and spent some time adjusting the bag to minimise bouncing and abrasion. What a huge difference the bounce and no-bounce made!

We were clocking mileage for TNF100. Well, sort of. I love long runs, regardless of events. :) We ran through the field to Zhenghua, cut through the Park Connector and flats, under the overpass, and over to the Gangsa MTB trail. It was a slightly different route from the actual TNF race, but eventually merged back to the same path, at which point we u-turned and made our way back to MR. We parted company there and I made my way back home through Rifle Range Road (again). Took about 4:30h in total, the last 8+km was in between jogs and walks. I think it was 30+abit km. I was starting to get hungry, but the run felt so good. :)

Rested on Monday. Wanted to run, but thought better otherwise.

So I ran in the BT-MTB trail this morning (Tues) before work. A recovery run as legs refused to be agile. They felt heavy but when I checked, there were no ankle weights. Ahh. Anyway, while I was on my slow-plod, I saw something slithering away. I stopped to make sure it fully disappeared into the grass before I continued. It looked like a snake, with vertical stripes, but I could be mistaken. It could possibly be the tail of a skink... though it looked longer than that. Eeeeks, snakes never fail to send me shivers just by seeing them.

On my way out, I spied two blue-breasted birds chirping and fighting over some berries atop a bush. Then there was a grey-yellowish bird pecking at the berries, oblivious to its rowdy neighbours. I think I should go get an animal-bird-watching book, so that I can start naming them right and sound smart, instead of describing everything as a bird, tree, or snake!

Monday, August 13, 2012

Over the last national day short work-week, I managed to clock in my usual trail runs.

National day saw me waking up early and hitting the trail by 8ish (very early by my standards) and finishing the to-fro route within 3h. I had wanted to join my friends and meet them halfway for the run, but woke up late and missed timings, so I ran alone.

Then on Saturday, I was able adjust the route a little and add another 3.5 - 4km. I headed off Rifle Range Road and went towards Zhenghua, before rejoining along the Belukar MTB trail to get home (via the Wallace Centre and DF Quarry walls). The sun was blazing, the exposed field to Zhenghua was a downer, so difficult to run. Under the shade was a lot better. As I went to the water-cooler at Wallace Centre, I bumped into an old schoolmate, Wilson. Ah-ha! I did not know that one could book the exhibition space there for events. Idea, albeit very hot.

Sunday, my legs felt a bit tired. I was up early as I had a curfew to be home by 1030am. It was a dash, I put in effort to go faster than my usual comfortable pace. And lo behold! I actually made it sub-2:40h, saving about 5 - 7min. Pleased. :)

Monday, August 6, 2012

A whirlpool of runs in the past weeks, relishing life without classes.... for now. Shortish, longish, evenings, mornings and weekends, roads and trails. That sounds about all possible combinations of runs, doesn't it? I'm trying to run 2-3 times on weekdays, and twice on weekends. Did a couple of my usual BT-MR trails over the past weekends, decent to earn my next lunch. But not decent enough to burn off dinners. That weight gain is beginning to be an irritant...

This being the Olympics season, I managed to catch a couple of race replays over Youtube. Watching those well-trained, well-toned athletes in action was simply inspiring. If I were into the sport, it was inspiring to watch them execute those well-rehearsed techniques with such grace. If the sport was Greek to me, it was inspiring just oogling at those washboard abs and lean physiques (yes, superficial, I admit. :)).

I watched Mo Farah win UK's first 10,000m Gold, with a clear lead ahead of the runner-up. The last 2min of his race was pure brilliance, long gazelle-strides, graceful, steady. With an equally compelling story behind the scenes. And caught Michael Phelps in action to win his 18th Gold medal from the 4x100m medley. Watched the men hammer through the 100m heats with such thunderquad-power, and the women pole-vault themselves with agility. Saw Maria utterly thrashed by Serena (was she even playing tennis?). I missed our Singapore's table-tennis bronze medal match, but read the excitement over Facebook. Olympics is in the air! (At least within my community of sporty friends.) Would love to catch the showdown for the men's 100m final, but it will be at 4am and I do not have a TV. I think the Jamaicans will sweep the podium - Bolt, Blake, and Powell. Gay may successfully gatecrash the party, we will know in a couple of hours.